USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 42
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OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND
stumbling-block out of the way of the Church's popularity, and I hope that it may be found practicable to do so. But whether the service be longer or shorter, if ministers preach the Gospel faith- fully and perform all other duties piously and zealously, great will be the effect. Numbers will be added to the Lord of such as shall be saved. Too many instances of a true conversion and most ex- alted piety are to be found in our own and Mother-Church to allow of a doubt on this point. The great want of the Church is more pious and zealous ministers, who understand and preach the Gospel. . Let them be sons of the Church,-not converts, except they be young,-not proselytes from other ministries. It is not reasonable to expect many useful and acceptable ones from the pulpits of other denominations. All experience is against it. If respectable, in- fluential, and happy in the places of their birth, training, and minis- try, it will not often happen that either conscience, choice, or judgment will induce them to leave their old associations. Most honourable exceptions there are. I have known such,-have laid my hands on such, and highly esteem them. But, at the same time, I have ever made it my boast, that if in any thing I have done good service to the Church, it has been in dissuading from our ministry those who would have gladly entered it, but who, like too many others, might have done us evil instead of good,-might either have been drones in our hive, or else have taken our ministry on the way to Rome. When I have heard it boasted that hundreds have left other ministries, drawn by the superior and exclusive claims of ours, and have known who and what too many of these were, I have mourned over the fact instead of rejoicing at it, and regarded it as the judgment of Heaven upon us for urging, to an extreme which neither Scripture nor our Protestant fathers nor our standards justify, the exclusive claims of the Episcopal ordination. At the same time, when I have heard some of other denominations declare that none but the unworthy ever leave them, I could not forbear the hint that there must be something most defective in the training of their ministers, when they have so many unworthy ones to spare.
The great complaint of those who desire some change is, that our Church does not, as at present administered, operate on the masses,-especially that we have so few of the very poor in our congregations, although some have laboured very faithfully to this end. It ought certainly to be regarded as a great unhappiness and defect to be without a due admixture of such. Ministers ought to covet the poor for their congregations, and seek them by all proper means. They should do it for their own sakes, and for that of the
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FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
rich of their flock, as well as for the benefit of the poor. The pre- sence of the poor will help them to preach the Gospel in a plainer and more effective way,-will exercise all their ministerial graces,- will call forth the alms of their parishioners the more abundantly. Our services, rightly understood and used, are admirably adapted to the poor and ignorant. It is deeply to be lamented that so much prejudice exists in the minds of the great mass of the American people against our Church and her peculiarities, so that thus far but little success has attended even the most zealous efforts of some who have devoted themselves to the work. Various circumstances con- nected with our political and religious history have contributed to this. With all the republicanism of our country, there is as much of social and religious prejudice, caste, and division among us as in any nation of Christendom, although it differs considerably in some of its modes. Political and religious demagogues are con- tinually fostering it in order to promote their ends. Religious associations are hard to be broken. "Can a people forsake their gods?" may be asked now in relation to the religious sects of our country, as formerly concerning the sects in pagan lands. Two or three denominations among us have absorbed almost all of the poorer classes, and claim them as their birthright. To induce even a few of such to unite with us is attended with great difficulty, for against no denomination of Christians are their prejudices so strong as against our own. Still, let us endeavour to allure as many as possible of the more neglected ones into our fold, and tend them well. If any modifications of our system can adapt it the better · for this purpose, most assuredly let it be done. In ordaining men for the purpose, however, let us beware of lowering our standard too much. Our Lord and the Apostles, who preached so well to the poor, were filled with all knowledge by the Spirit. All other de- nominations are raising their standard of ministerial qualification. Some expressions have been used among us which have excited fears that we were about to err in this respect. I have no such fears myself. At any rate, I am confident that a few mistakes in ordain- ing ignorant and unsuitable men would soon correct the error.
I have thus in a most imperfect manner completed my recollection of such things in the diocese of Virginia and in the General Church as seemed most worthy of being recorded. I had thought, in view
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CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA.
of death, to leave behind me some such notices; but it may be better to have been surprised into this earlier statement, so that if I have fallen into any mistakes I may have the opportunity of cor- recting them, as I should be grieved to misrepresent even in the slightest degree the Church of my affections, or any member of it.
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APPENDIX.
No. I.
A COPY OF THE JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION HELD AT THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY, IN THE CITY OF WILLIAMSBURG, IN APRIL, 1719.
AT a Convention of the Clergy of Virginia, begun on Wednesday, the eighth day of April, 1719, in the College of William and Mary, in the city of Williamsburg, Mr. Commissary Blair called over a list of the clergymen of this Colony, and the following members answered to their names :-
Mr. Selater, Mr. Guy Smith, Mr. Lewis Latane, Mr. Thomas Sharpe, Mr. Hugh Jones, Mr. Andrew Thomson, Mr. Ralph Bowker, Mr. Cargill, Mr. George Robinson, Mr. Monroe, Mr. Eml. Jones, Mr. Bar. Yates, Mr. Wm. Finney, Mr. John Shaife, Mr. Alex. Scott, Mr. John Worden, Mr. Benj. Pownal, Mr. Wm. Brodie, Mr. John Bagge, Mr. Fran. Mylne, Mr. Brunskill, Mr. Fountaine, Mr. Geo. Seagood, Mr. James Robertson, Mr. James Falconer.
Absent.
Mr. Alex. Forbes, Mr. John Bell, Mr. Giles Rainsford, Mr. James Breghin, Mr. John Span, Mr. Owen Jones, Mr. John Prince, Mr. James Tenant, (out of the country,) Mr. Daniel Taylor, (excused by letter,) Mr. Saml. Bernard, (sick,) Mr. James Cleck, (sick,) Mr. Wm. Black.
Then Mr. Commissary Blair read two letters from the Lord-Bishop of London, our Diocesan, one to himself, and another to Reverend the Clergy of Virginia, and recommended the particulars of them, which letters are as followeth,-viz. :
To the Rev. Mr. Blair, Commissary of Virginia.
DEAR BROTHER :- You will find in the enclosed the reason I have for writing it, and will, I doubt not, agree in opinion with me that it cannot but be useful to put the clergy under you in mind of their duty, even if there should be no failing, much more if there be any. I therefore de- sire you to communicate this letter to them, and to use all proper means to redress any deviations from our rules, considering that both you and I are to be answerable if we neglect our duty in that part.
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I have wrote to the Governor, and entreated him to give you all pro- per countenance and assistance in these matters, and am persuaded he will be ready so to do upon any application you may have occasion to make him.
I should be glad to hear from you what vacant churches are in your parts, to the end I may use my best endeavours to procure you a supply. I am, sir,
Your assured friend and brother,
FULHAM, August 6, 1718. JOHN LONDON.
To the Reverend the Clergy of Virginia.
REVEREND BRETHREN :- It is always a joy to me to hear of the good success of your ministerial labours, and no less a grief to hear of any defaults and irregularities among you ; to which disadvantageous reports I am not forward to give credit, finding that wrong representations are frequently made. Some occasions have been given to apprehend, there may have been faults and miscarriages in the life and conversation of some among you, which I trust are corrected; and that the grace of God, and a sense of duty you owe to Him, his Church, and to yourselves, will so rule in your hearts, as that I shall no more hear any thing to the disadvantage of any of you upon that head. Nevertheless, I cannot but give you notice, that I have information of some irregularities, which, if practised, will need very much to be redressed; and I cannot but hope, if such things there be, you will not be unwilling to do your part, as I think it a duty to do mine by this advisement.
Whether any ministers be settled among you who have not a license from my predecessor or myself, I must leave to the inquiry of your Governor, who is instructed in that case, and will, I believe, upon notice given, be ready to act accordingly, as also in reference to institutions and inductions. At least I must hope, that, by this case and yours, none will be suffered to officiate in the public worship of God, or perform any ministerial offices of religion, but such only as are Episcopally ordained; and from all such I cannot but expect a regular conformity to the established Liturgy, from which none of us can depart without violating that solemn promise we made at our ordination.
I have desired Mr. Commissary to communicate this to you, and, as I hope he will use all fitting earnestness in pressing the observation of these things, so I doubt not he will be able to procure a redress for those or any other disorders in the worship of God, when the same shall come to his knowledge.
I am, reverend brethren,
Your affectionate brother and assured friend,
JOHN LONDON.
FULHAM, August 6, 1718.
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Then the Convention received a letter from the Honourable the Go- vernor, directed to the clergy, which was read, and with it a copy of a letter from the Governor to the vestry of St. Anne, in Essex, which was read also, which letters are as followeth, viz. :-
REVEREND GENTLEMEN :- You are now come hither at your Com- missary's desire, that he might have the easier opportunity to communicate to you a letter from your Right Reverend Diocesan. And seeing his Lord- ship has been pleased to make mention of me in that letter, taking notice that I have instructions to act in reference to institutions and inductions, and that he must leave to my inquiry whether any ministers be settled among you who have not license from him or his predecessor, and as his Lordship seems to rely on my care as well as yours, that none may be suffered to officiate in the public worship of God, or perform any ministerial offices of religion, but such only as are Episcopally ordained, I ought not to be silent on this occasion, and thereupon must remark to you, that the very person whom his Lordship expects should use all fitting earnestness in pressing the observations of these things is he whom I take to be the least observer thereof himself. For none more eminently than Mr. Com- missary Blair sets at naught those instructions which your Diocesan leaves you to be guided by, with respect to institutions and inductions; he deny- ing by his practice as well as discourses that the King's Government has the right to collate ministers to ecclesiastical benefices within this Colony; for, when the church which he now supplies became void by the death of the former incumbent, his solicitation for the same was solely to the vestry, without his ever making the least application to me for my col- lation, notwithstanding it was my own parish church; and I cannot but complain of his deserting the cause of the Church in general, and striving to put it on such a foot as must deprive the clergy of that reasonable security which, I think, they ought to have with regard to their livings.
As to the disorders in the worship of God, which are pointed at in the said letter, it appears as if my Lord of London knew not that this Com- missary is more apt to countenance than redress the same ; for I myself have seen him present in the church while a layman (his clerk) has read the divine service to the congregation, he himself vouchsafing to perform no more of the ministerial office than to pronounce the absolution, preach, and dismiss with the blessing. I have also seen him present in the church- yard while the same clerk has performed the funeral-service at the grave. And I remember when he was for having the churchwardens provide lay readers, who should on Sundays read to their congregations some printed sermons; and so far he declared in Council his approbation thereof, that such practice had like to have had the sanction of the Government, had I not withstood it as destructive to the Establishment of the Church.
Those and many other instances that might be given induce me to be- lieve that a reformation of what has chiefly (as I apprehend) given occa- sion to your Diocesan's letter will not be pressed very heartily upon you
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by your Commissary, especially if he made no such solemn promise at his ordination as his Lordship reminds you all of: wherefore I judge it to be the more incumbent upon the several members now in this Convention diligently to inquire of the disorders'which your Diocesan takes notice of, and earnestly to apply yourselves to proper means for redressing them.
As to any faults and miscarriages in the life and conversation of some among you, which your Diocesan likewise touches upon, I trust your Com- missary will use all fitting earnestness in pressing the reformation of such manners as may give offence and bring scandal upon your holy profession ; and I have so good an opinion of the present body of the clergy, that I do not in the least doubt of a very general concurrence to censure and admonish any one of your fraternity here whom you shall know to have erred in either his doctrine or manners. For my part, I hope, after so many years' experience of my conduct in this Government, there is little need to express in words my disposition toward the Church; and I cannot suppose that any one of you doubts of my real inclination to support the interest thereof, or that I am otherwise than, reverend gentlemen,
Your very affectionate and assured humble servant,
A. SPOTTSWOOD.
WILLIAMSBURG, April 8, 1719.
To the vestry of St. Anne, in Essex, September 3, 1718.
GENTLEMEN :- Though the hurry of public business, wherein I was engaged, did not allow me time immediately to answer your letter of the 1st of August, yet I told Mr. Short' on his going hence, on the 5th of that month, that you might expect my answer in a few days ; and if he has done me justice he has informed you that I advised your forbearing, in the mean time, to run too rashly into the measures I perceived you were inclining to; assuring him my intentions are to make you easy, if possible, in relation to your minister. But, whether that advice was imparted to you or not, it is plain, by your proceedings of the 8th of the same month, that you resolved not to accept of it, seeing you immediately discarded Mr. Bagge and sent down Mr. Rainsford with a pretended presentation of induction. As soon as that came into my hands, I observed it expressly contrary to a late opinion of the Council, whereby it is declared that the right of supplying vacant benefices is claimed by the King, and by his Majesty's commission given to the Governor; and for that reason I let Mr. Rainsford know that before I could admit of such a presentation it was necessary for me to have likewise the advice of the Council thereon. But, not content to wait their resolution, I understand you have taken upon you the power of in- duction, as well as that of presentation, by giving Mr. Rainsford possession of the pulpit, and excluding the person I appointed to officiate. I have, according to my promise, taken the advice of my Council upon your pre- tended presentation, and here send it enclosed, by which you will find that the Board is clearly of opinion that I should not receive such presentation :
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so that if you are the patrons (as you suppose) you may as soon as you please bring a "quare impedit" to try your title; and then it will appear whether the King's clerk or yours has the most rightful possession of this church. In the mean time I think it necessary to forewarn you to be cautious how you dispose of the profits of your parish, lest you pay it in your own wrong.
Should I end my letter here, it might be imagined that I am as willing as you to keep up contention ; but, as I am rather desirous to prevail with you by reason than to convince you at your own expense, I think it ne- cessary to exhort you to some just terms of accommodation : but I must tell you, that this is not to be accomplished by the interposition of such faithless deputies as Mr. Short, your late messenger hither; for if upon his return he reported what I have seen attested under Mr. Winston's hand, he ought to be excluded all human conversation ; for I do assure you that no such discourse happened between Short and me as he has related, neither did Mr. Bagge ever solicit me to turn out any one of your vestry, nor did I ever receive such a proposal from any man else, except Mr. Rainsford, who in a letter last year did importune me to remove one of your vestry, whom he terms a Judas among the number of the twelve Bishops of St. Anne's, but, because I never pretended to intermeddle in the choice or removal of vestries, I never answered his letter. By the same hands it is like you received such another piece of news,-to wit: that Mr. Commissary Blair advised your insisting on your right, for that you had the law, and the major part of the Council is on your side. I have taxed Mr. Commissary with this, and he has publicly denied it, and even given it under his hand that he never did such a thing; but, if he did, the enclosed proceedings of the Council (wherein he joined) will convince you how much he was mistaken. Another thing, which perhaps may have given you a fallacious assurance, is, that the vestry of James City were taking the same measures with you to dispute the King's authority; but, to undeceive you on that point, that vestry has thought fit to drop the dispute, and the person they pretended to fix in their parish has been fain to supplicate me to put him into some other benefice.
Having thus endeavoured to remove the impression which false rumors and public insinuations may have made on you, I shall in the next place remind you of some particulars which probably some of you have forgot and others perhaps have never come to the knowledge of. In the year 1712, Mr. Bagge was so much in the esteem of your parish that, though he had then the care of another, he was the only person you would think of to supply yours, and you represented him to me as a sober man, a good preacher, and of a life and conversation blameless; when I yielded to supply your parish by collating Mr. Edwards, the only objection to Mr. Bagge was his non-residence in your parish; when, upon Mr. Edwards's decease, I was willing to prefer Mr. Bagge to that vacaney, you then only objected against him his not being in Priests' Orders; and when, in order
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to his qualifying himself for the care of your parish, he undertook a voyage to England, you gave him a very ample testimonial of his pious and laud- able life and doctrine, all which are yet extant, under the hands of those who now so violently oppose him. It was on the testimony of your vestry that your Diocesan,-the Bishop of London,-after having admitted Mr. Bagge into Priests' Orders, recommended him to me that he might be collated into that parish where he had gained so good a reputation; and who could imagine he would not be acceptable to a people who had given such encomiums of his life and doctrine, after he had taken such pains to remove the only thing that could be objected to him? And what opinion your Bishop will have of men who, without any new experience of Mr. Bagge's behaviour, act so inconsistent with themselves, I leave you to judge.
That I may the better prevail with you to reflect in time upon what you are going about, I shall plainly lay before you the power by which I act, leaving you to judge whether I ought to give up a right so well founded both on law and reason : As the King is the sovereign of these plantations, so he is vested with the right of patronage of all ecclesiastical benefices, unless when it appears that he has by apt words granted the same away to private subjects.
That his Majesty doth claim the right here in Virginia appears by the commission under the broad seal, whereby his Majesty gives his Governor full power and authority to collate any person or persons to any churches ' or chapels, or any other ecclesiastical benefices, as often as any of them shall become void, (which power is also expressly excepted out of the Bishop of London's patent as Bishop of the Plantations;) and in his Ma- jesty's instructions the Governor is particularly directed as to the qualifi- cations of the persons so to be collated by him, and enjoined to cause all persons not so qualified to be removed, and immediately to supply the vacancies, without giving notice to the vestries, which is always done in England (in the case of deprivation) where there is a patron. This shows that the King acknowledges no other patron but himself. But, besides this commission, there is a further and very early evidence of the King's not looking on the law you hinge on to give the vestries any right of patron- age: it is a lease made by King Charles II., to the Lords Arlington and Culpepper, of the whole Territory of Virginia for thirty-one years, wherein, among other things, there is this remarkable grant,-viz : "And we do further give and grant to the Lord Henry Earle of Arlington, and Thomas, Lord Culpepper, that they shall, for and during the said term of thirty-one years, be sole and absolute patrons of all the churches and chapels already built, or shall hereafter be built, within the said Territory," &c. Now, this grant being made in 1672, just ten years after the law for inducting of ministers passed here, is it to be supposed that the King's Counsel-at-law, who prepared the grant, and the Lord-Chancellor, who put the great scal to it, would have suffered it to pass had they judged it incompatible with
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a law of the Colony so lately enacted, when it must have been fresh in memory, especially considering that the Lord-Chancellor was always one of the Committee for Foreign Plantations? And the then Government, Council, and House of Burgesses, though they sent. home agents to re- monstrate against this law, did not plead that this grant of the patronage of churches was repugnant to the right of the vestries; neither could the agents prevail to get the grant set aside, though they were particularly charged to endeavour it. If you consider Sir Edward Northey's opinion, (which I find mentioned in your letter,) it is plain he never had the King's right under consideration; nor doth he at all determine that the vestries are the undoubted patrons; but, after he had cited the several laws relating to the churches, he declared that the right of advowson must be determined by the laws of England, (there being no law of this country that gives any further direction therein,) and the whole scope of his argu- ments thereafter is only to show what is the practice in England, where there are such undoubted patrons; which is but supposing what the King has not yet yielded in this, country, seeing he still claims the right of supplying the vacancies of all ecclesiastical benefices, as the Council hath declared to be the true meaning of his Majesty's commission and instruc- tions.
Lastly, I shall set forth to you the reasonableness of believing that the King looks upon the right of disposing of the benefices here as still vested in the Crown.
Every minister sent here is denominated one of the King's Chaplains, employed in his Majesty's service abroad, and as such receives twenty pounds out of his treasury to defray the charge of his passage. If any of the King's ships are coming hither, those ministers have the passage and provision gratis. The Bishop of London recommends them to the Govern- ment to be preferred to some ecclesiastical living. But they bring no recommendation to any vestry as patrons of the churches; nor doth either the King or the Bishop direct or desire the Governor to intercede with the patrons of the churches to bestow on such ministers the vacant livings in their gift. Now, to what purpose is the King at so much expense to send over clergymen to the Plantations, if they are to starve here till a lay patron thinks fit to present them? To what purpose doth the Bishop recommend them to the Government, if he has no preferment to bestow? To what purpose do they bring the Bishop's testimonial and license to preach, if their qualifications are to be again tried by a vestry here, and they to depend on popular humour for their livings? Can it be supposed that the Governor's instructions, prepared by the Board of Trade, (who are well acquainted with all the laws of this country,) and afterward read and approved of in Council, where the King's learned judges are present, should enjoin the Governor, upon the removal of a minister, immediately to supply the vacancy without waiting the six months' lapse, and should not rather direct him to follow the practices of England by giving timely notice
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